Luke Plunkett

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Third last season and champions in 2008 and 2009, how are County Cricket's northern most side likely to fare in 2012?

Strengths

It's hard to know where to begin as Durham look stronger than a particularly pungent slice of Mont d'or cheese. The batting features the ever-dependable Dale Benkenstein as well as Michael Di Venuto and Paul Collingwood. Then there is young tyro Ben Stokes, all-round(er) Ian Blackwell and skipper Phil Mustard adding ballast and fluency to the late middle-order. If that wasn't enough then a blend of pace in the form of Steve Harmison, Graham Onions and Liam Plunkett, and spin in the shape of Blackwell and Scott Borthwick augers well for yet another concerted tilt at the title.

Weaknesses

These are harder to find although Harmison is past his best and increasingly troubled by injuries, which have also curtailed Onions' England career over the last two years. This means that the seam bowling is not as strong as it was in the triumphant 2008 and 2009 sides.

Main man

That has to be Dale Benkenstein - the heartbeat of the side and as reliable as Santa in that he always delivers.

Look out for

Stokes is returning from an operation on his finger, but if he can hit the ground running with bat and ball as he did in 2011, a regular spot in England's limited overs sides seems his for the taking.

Prediction

Champions - predicting the outcome of Division 1 is as difficult as choosing the winning lottery numbers, but Durham look the best balanced side. Given we've gone for them, they'll probably be relegated now.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

With the new county season imminent we’ll be posting our previews of each of the 18 counties between now and the first round of County Championship matches next Friday.

We start with Division 1 and the northernmost county Durham, who will be looking to improve on last season’s finish of 5th and recapture the glory of the title winning seasons of 2008 and 2009.

Strengths

Durham’s main strength was its big weakness in 2010 when an almost biblical pestilence of injuries robbed them of Graham Onions, Mark Davies and Stephen Harmison for either the whole or significant parts of the summer. If Durham are to repeat their successes of 2008 and 2009, they will need this pace triumvirate fighting fit.

Other strengths include a powerful lower middle order of Ian Blackwell, Ben Stokes and Phil Mustard and the consistently high performing Michael Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein.

Weaknesses

Once again there is no overseas batsman to provide support to Di Venuto and Benkenstein in what is an area of weakness for Durham, although fans can expect to see more of Paul Collingwood this season now that he is retired from Test duty.

Main man

Stokes looks to have a big future and a good season could see him accelerated into the England set-up, and Di Venuto can be relied upon for substantial runs. But our nod here goes to the returning Graham Onions, who will be champing at the bit to make up for missing the whole of last season and the Ashes tour.

Look out for…

The return of Will Smith, who hasn’t been seen on a cricket field since he abruptly resigned the captaincy early last season. Hopefully, his break from the game will enable him to deliver the goods with the bat once again.

Prediction

2nd – providing that they can keep Onions, Davies and Harmison fit. Add these three to Liam Plunkett and Durham has the best pace attack in the division.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss are probably as pleased as we are here at the Reverse Sweep that the ridiculously elongated one day series is over. Never again, must England agree to play a seven match ODI series especially straight after a long and tiring Ashes series.

Not only has morale been sapped by a 6-1 caning at the hands of Australia, but injuries to several key players means that their World Cup hopes potentially lie in tatters.

England used a mind-boggling 19 players over the course of the series. Here's how they rate out of ten:

Andrew Strauss (179 runs at 25.57, 2 fifties, SR 82.48) - 5: Reached 63 twice but other than that the captain had a poor series with his muddled thinking in the field indicative of England's malaise.

Stephen Davies (42 runs at 21, SR 102.43) - 4: Hit a streaky 42 in the first match and was promptly then dropped from the World Cup squad to make room for Prior. Must be wondering what he has done to offend the selectors.

Matt Prior (138 runs at 23.00, 1 fifty, SR 90.19) - 4: England's obsession that their wicketkeeper has to open is doing Prior a dis-service as he would be much better employed down the order. Fell cheaply to the pace of Lee three times.

Jonathan Trott (375 runs at 62.50, 2 100s, 1 50, SR 81.69) - 9: The leading run-scorer in the series scored over twice as many runs as any other England batsman. His 137 at Sydney in the sixth match was a great one day innings and proved that he could change gears when required.

Kevin Pietersen (185 runs at 30.83, 1 50, SR 90.24) - 5: Started like a dream in the first match at Melbourne before being run out by Mitchell Johnson's passable imitation of Wayne Rooney. Thereafter, KP disappointed getting out to a hopeless shot on more than one occasion.

Ian Bell (154 runs at 22.00, SR 70.00) - 3: Looked a million dollars when scoring a hundred against the Prime Minister's XI in the warm-up as an opener, and was then promptly moved down the order for the entire series. Should open in the World Cup.

Eoin Morgan (106 runs at 17.66, SR 80.30) - 2: Was understandably rusty at the start of the series after three months of twiddling his fingers and carrying drinks, but failed to get into nick before breaking a digit to put his World Cup spot in jeopardy. Another who found some truly horrible ways of getting out.

Paul Collingwood (53 runs at 17.66, SR 86.88; 4 wickets at 20.75, ER 3.32) - 6: Started the series on the sidelines, but the break didn't do his batting much good. His bowling though was a revelation, being the only man on either side to have an economy rate of less than four runs per over.

Luke Wright (56 runs at 28.00, SR 86.15; no wickets, ER 5.36) - 2: Not even a bits and pieces player and how he can be in the World Cup squad ahead of Bopara defies belief.

Tim Bresnan (4 wickets at 27.00, ER 5.68; 47 runs at 23.50, SR 87.03) - 5: Broke down after two matches to join England's walking wounded and may now have lost his spot to Collingwood for the World Cup.

Michael Yardy (5 wickets at 60.20, ER 5.57; 137 runs at 45.66, SR 84.04) - 3: A couple of useful knocks with the bat could not hide the Sussex captain's ineffectiveness with the ball. A weak link in England's World Cup armoury.

James Tredwell (1 match, 16 runs and 0/44) - 1: Has Samit Patel's love of chapatis to thank for even getting one match. England effectively have a 14 man squad for the World Cup given Tredwell's presence in the squad. Maybe it is better to have someone who eats pies rather than bowls them?

Graeme Swann (1 match, 1/42 and 4 runs): 4: Another to fall victim to the injury curse and how England missed Swann's potency and control with the ball. Hopefully, he will now be rested and raring to go for the World Cup where England's fortunes are likely to improve of Swann fires.

Chris Woakes (7 wickets at 21.28, ER 5.65; 20 runs at 10.00, SR 50.00) - 5: Experienced the highs and lows of international cricket with 6/45 at Brisbane before being walloped for 73 runs in 9.2 wicketless overs in the next match at Sydney. One for the future.

Liam Plunkett (1 match, 2/49 and 20 runs) - 5: Plunkett came from a galaxy far, far away (i.e. the Caribbean) for the final match in Perth and defied jet lag to put in a creditable performance.

Ajmal Shahzad (6 wickets at 40.50, ER 5.15) - 3: Bowled excellently in Hobart, before fading away and then becoming another to pick up an injury. Shows promise but is maybe not as good as many are saying.

Chris Tremlett (6 wickets at 33.50, ER 5.20) - 5: Left out of the World Cup squad and then promptly bowled brilliantly at Hobart to take 3/22. Yet another England bowler who picked up an injury.

James Anderson (7 wickets at 34.00, ER 5.95) - 4: Was given a break back home for the first three matches and must have wished he'd have stayed there after being smashed for 91 runs at Sydney, before bouncing back with 3/48 at Perth.

Steve Finn (3 wickets at 56.33, ER 5.63) - 4: Bowled better than his figures suggest and really enjoyed himself with the bat in Brisbane.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

The Battle of Stalingrad may have seen perhaps the highest number of casualties of any battle in warfare, but the current ODI series between Australia and England can’t be far behind – and it feels like it has lasted nearly as long as that bloody battle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union too.

Certainly, the wisdom of having a seven match series straight after the Ashes, and so soon before the World Cup, has been exposed as the sheer folly most of us knew it was. Players on both sides have been dropping like flies throughout the series.

Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann have already flown home early and Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett are about to join them.

For Australia, it is not much better with Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherty, Shaun Marsh all being felled to join Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey on the sidelines.

The sixth match of the series today was particularly bloody. Jonathan Trott and Steve Smith both required runners and Paul Collingwood was unable to bowl after jarring his back whilst batting. And if Shaun Tait's glass body managed to get through without a crack it will have been a miracle. At this rate, the final match of the series in Perth will be seven-a-side.

Indeed, things have got so bad for England that Liam Plunkett has been called up. Any additional injuries could see the unthinkable happen – the return of Sajid Mahmood.

If that happens, England’s hopes for the World Cup will be as buggered as the Wehrmacht’s Sixth Army was at Stalingrad.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A 2-0 series victory and winning margins of 181 runs and nine wickets suggest that England comfortably won the series, and to some respect they did. Nevertheless, at times Bangladesh had England on the ropes but either because of umpiring error or mainly because Bangladesh were unable to land a telling punch at crucial moments, England's counter-attack was enough for them to prevail.

But how did each of the men that played in the two tests perform? For what it's worth, here are my ratings:

Alastair Cook - 9 for batting, 5 for captaincy: Centuries in both matches suggested that the captaincy didn't affect Cook's batting, but he certainly didn't have the air of a Jardine, an Illingworth or a Vaughan in the field. There was too much of captaincy by committee and at times Cook looked a bit confused. If the opposition had been stronger, Cook may have been more exposed. That said, England won both matches and Cook's batting looks back to its best.

Michael Carberry - 6: Only played in the first test and given the opposition bowling attach, we didn't really learn too much about whether Carberry can make the step up to test cricket. Looked good in both innings and will be annoyed that he couldn't convert decent starts into big runs. His fielding was magnificent and he is nearly as quick as Usain Bolt.

Jonathan Trott - 5: After his stunning debut at the Oval most thought that England had found a real star. But nerveless has turned into nervous and Trott's batting has become ugly to watch and his batting in the first innings in Mirpur was either just what England needed replying to 419 or ridiculously negative depending on your opinion. The pressure seemed to affect Trott's fielding where he dropped an absolute dolly to reprieve Tamim.

Kevin Pietersen - 8: Came into the series under immense pressure but showed real grit and application as he recovered his mojo and swaggering confidence at Chittagong, where he fell one run short of a richly deserved century. On the minus side, he threw his wicket away in the first innings at Mirpur but people must learn to take the rough with the smooth where it concerns KP. Looked secure in the 2nd innings run chase and England will hope that Pietersen is back to his best for the big year ahead.

Paul Collingwood - 7: A typical Collingwood century at Chittagong put England out of sight. This was followed by two failures, although the second was aided and abetted by a poor umpiring decision. Although he was his usual reliable self, this was not a series for Collingwood to thrive in. Those await Down Under next winter.

Ian Bell - 9: Looked in wonderful touch throughout the series as his renaissance continued. His century in Mirpur got England out of a hole and answered those critics that argue Bell only shines as a supporting act to others. Now looks at ease with himself and his game, but can he deliver against Australia?

Matt Prior - 6: Just as his wicketkeeping has got more proficient so his batting has become more inconsistent. He ruined all the good work of his counterattacking fifty in the 1st innings at Mirpur by getting out to an atrocious swipe. Could come under pressure from England's coming man Craig Kieswetter.

Tim Bresnan - 7: The Yorkshireman earns full marks for trying and certainly seems to make the best of his ability, but I don't see him as a test opening bowler. But, he was the pick of the England seamers in the series and the balls to remove Tamim on Chittagong and Musfiqur in Mirpur were arguably the balls of the series. Just failed to get a deserved maiden ton, but his partnership with Bell put his side firmly in control.

Graeme Swann - 9: Swann's remarkable success story continued with ten wickets at Chittagong and six in Mirpur, despite the obvious effects of Dhaka belly. Still has the uncanny knack of getting a wicket in the first or second over of each spell and long may it continue. Now at a heady number two in the ICC rankings and it is richly deserved.

Stuart Broad - 5: Broad was frustratingly inconsistent with dross combined the occasional good ball. His habit of getting on the wrong side of the umpires and the spirit of the game is becoming annoying and needs to be rectified. Is he starting to get a bit big for his boots?

James Tredwell - 7: Should have played at Chittagong, but made up for it with six wickets on debut in Mirpur and added useful runs into the bargain. Tredwell could well have nailed down the reserve spinner role to Swann ahead of Monty and Rashid. Also took a stunning catch at Chittagong during a brief stint as substitute fielder.

Steve Finn - 6: Came in ahead of Liam Plunkett and Ajmal Shahzad and didn't let anyone down on what were extremely unhelpful wickets for the paceman. Seems to have a good attitude and is apparently still growing, so he could become a long term fixture in the side and a potential replacement for Harmison. It will be good to see how he fares on more helpful wickets and against stronger opposition.

Friday, March 05, 2010

"Yesterday we submitted a 'Situations Vacant' advertisement to the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph for a drinks waiter and general dogsbody to cover the two test match series with Bangladesh. This unexpected vacancy came up because due to an injury crisis, we had to call up the incumbent to the third one dayer today. He had performed his role with some aplomb throughout the South African tour as well as the short trip to Dubai and now in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, Luke Plunkett is obviously better suited to carrying drinks, cleaning boots and laying out kit because his bowling so far today has been appalling. Therefore the vacancy is summarily withdrawn and an additional vacancy will be issued to a number of South African publications for a strapping, quick and accurate fast bowler."

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